Cadence stood at attention as General Kenobi laid out the plan. The Umbaran Capital was almost under their control, despite the lack of support from the 501st. It was unlike the boys in blue to have problems on the offensive. Normally, General Skywalker was able to work things into his favor, no matter how impossible the mission seemed. The tactics and attitudes of his men reflected it. But now, with him on a mission for the Chancellor and the 501st under the command of General Krell, everything was going wrong.

The alicorn felt a pit in her stomach. Something about Krell did not feel right. His lack of compassion for his men was well known, even to the Jedi. General Kenobi had been trying to contact him whenever possible, hoping to keep him in line. But with the constant ambushes from the Umbarans, the general found little time to check in every day.

Cadence hoped that Luna was okay. They have not talked in weeks. Not since before the initial landings. Maybe once the capitol was taken, the Umbarans would finally surrender. It might have been a foolhardy hope, in this war, but a girl could hope.

‘Jedi… enemy…’ It was there again. That voice. Her voice. Only, it didn’t sound like her. It was like a droid copy of itself. With a practiced shake of her head, the voice went away. For now. She focused on the General’s plan. It was simple, rush through to the Parliament Building at the heart of the city. Attack from multiple directions and overwhelm the defenders. A simple plan, but proven effective.

“Brief your platoons, we move out in three hours.” The clone officers nodded and went to meet up with their men. Cadence lingered for a moment, then marched up to the Jedi. His eyes were focused on the map, but she knew he was looking at her.

He sighed and turned off the holomap. “No, Cadence. I have not had any luck reaching General Krell. Something seems to be wrong with the communication hub. Again.”

Cadence groaned. What could be the problem? Their communication equipment could reach the ships in space and piggyback off them to the Jedi Council. So what could be wrong with Krell’s equipment?

The holotable bleeped, surprising the two. Obi-Wan pressed the blinking red button, activation the holoprojector. There stood General Krell. Cadence glared at the Basilisk. The voice in her head was screaming ‘Jedi… enemy… kill!’ It took all of her willpower to keep it quiet as the Jedi spoke.

“General Kenobi, I am in need of assistance.” He spoke in a tone that left little room for argument. But Kenobi was always ready to argue.

“I’m afraid that it might not be possible. I’m about to make one last push to the Capital.” He stroked his beard and glared. “If anything, I should have asked you for assistance, but you have not been keeping in contact with me.”

Krell was silent for a moment, as if considering his next words much more carefully. “I’m afraid that is why I’m contacting you. Some of my platoons were ambushed and their equipment was stolen. I fear that they may infiltrate my positions and sabotage the airbase. I need men from a different unit to deal with this, so as to avoid confusion. Once dealt with, I promise to assist your push to the Capital.”

Kenobi stroked his beard in thought. It was a risk if the Umbarans took Republic equipment. But something did not feel right. After some quick thinking, he turned to the alicorn.

“Captain Cadence, take Ghost Company and deal with this. Once you’ve dealt with the Umbarans, rendezvous with the 212th in the Capital.” Cadence nodded. Krell gave a single nod in thanks.

“My thanks, Master Kenobi. I’ll keep my men inside the base while Captain Cadence deals with this. I don’t want to cause an incident.”

Cadence’s ears snapped to attention. Something in his tone put her on alert. It sounded like a predator, and she felt like prey. Without another word, the general’s hologram disappeared. Cadence placed her helmet on her head and turned to leave.

“Be careful, Cadence.” Kenobi said before turning to the command center. He had to coordinate with the rest of the 212th. This battle had to end quickly.

Pops was leading his platoon through the jungle. An eerie fog was making it virtually impossible to see anything, even with the advanced optics. It put the troops on edge. Cadence had given them a basic rundown of the situation. It chilled him to the bone that he can’t even trust the armor that should be protecting his brothers.

“I swear, when this is over, I’m sleeping with the barrack lights on.” Mecky jokes. But no one laughed.

Buck fidgeted with his blaster and turned to his squad leader. “Sir, if we could just use a flashlight for a few-” Pops shut down that suggestion quickly. It was too much of a risk.

Blade wasn’t bothered by the mission as much as his brothers were. He watched as the Umbaran capitol burned in the distance. A squadron of Y-Wings flew over the city, dropping their payload onto one of the skyscrapers.

“Hehe, go get ‘em, boys.” His musings were interrupted by a shoulder check from Tech.

“Come on, aren’t a little nervous about this?”

Blade shrugged. “Their armor, our armor. If they’re shooting at us, they ain’t my brothers.” The two troopers marched together in silence.

--

Further ahead of the company were a pair of snipers. Wreck and Hawk-Eye moved swiftly from tree to tree. One covered the other as they moved up. Wreck scanned the treeline further away. The terrain was bumpy, with small hills every few feet. It was a good spot for cover if needed.

Hawk-Eye gave him the signal to move. He was about to move to the next tree when something caught his eye. Through the scope, he watched as a lone trooper appeared from behind a tree. Two more followed, then a squad, and finally a full platoon packing serious heat. Heavy blasters and mortars. Not something one carries on a standard patrol.

“Eyes up. Unknowns moving up. 1-6-8, two thousand yards.”

Hawk-Eye raised his rifle and scanned the area. He could see a platoon moving up, with more appearing from the mist. Their armor was painted in 501st markings, but were they 501st?

Hawk-Eye activated his comms. “Captain, this is Scout 1. Unknowns in Clone Armor approaching at patrol pace.”

“Are they 501st colors?”

“Yes, ma’am, and they’re packing for an assault.”

There was silence for Force knows how long. The two snipers watched the men approach with itchy fingers. They already had eyes on the ones carrying the biggest guns. All they needed was the word.

“Weapons free.” Two shots rang out at the end of the syllable. Two men drop dead with burning head wounds. The Umbarans panicked and tried to take cover. Two more, three more, and so on. The two fired into the platoon.

“Sniper on the right.” Hawk-Eye called out. Wreck took aim and fired.

“Sniper down.” This was how they worked. One would spot a priority, the other would fire. They worked in tandem, taking shots as they were called. It was easy pickings.

-

Sting gunned down an Umbaran that charged his position. It writhed in pain before he fired several more to end its suffering. One of his men goes down with a bolt to the stomach. sting makes sure to avenge him.

More men are hit, all of them dead. Sting growls. How dare these Umbarans do this? Use their weapons and their armor to harm his brothers? He was going to make them pay!

“Incoming!” Flashes of light hover in the air, resembling stars in the dark sky above. And like stars, they came crashing down. Sting had no time to dodge before one round slammed into the ground behind him.

One of his men gaped as his body went in one direction, and his right leg flew off in the other.

--

Buck aimed his launcher at an enemy position. If they wanted to use explosives, he would answer in kind. The rocket flew through the air and landed precisely where he wanted it to. Three hostiles were obliterated before they even realized it.

“Haha! I got some!” A shoulder pat from Pops was all the approval he needed. He slung the launcher over his shoulder and picked up his carbine. It was time to push forward.

-

Cadence helped a wounded trooper behind a tree. Stitch quickly grabbed the trooper and gently placed him in a comfortable position. The captain looked at the growing humber of wounded being brought in. this firefight was far more brutal than she thought it would be.

This was not some small infiltration force, it was an entire battalion’s worth of Umbarans in clone armor. Something wasn’t right and she knew it. Her instincts were screaming at her to stop. But what was she missing?

She pushed those thoughts away as Boil ran up.

“Captain, we’re outnumbered and taking too many casualties. It might be better to fall back.”

Cadence shook her head. “We can’t. The General already sent everyone else to the capitol. If we don’t stop the Umbarans here, they will cause havoc in the rear.” she paused to let the gravity of the situation sink in. “We hold out, Boil. That’s an order.”

She blinked as she realized something. “Where’s Waxer?”

--

Tech and Blade were giving the Umbarans hell. Blade was having the time of his life as he gunned down two of them. Tech kept his head down. His shotgun didn’t have much range, so he simply laid down and spotted targets for his vibro wielding friend.

He caught sight of one Umbaran running through the middle of a squad. It shoved past them, with no weapons drawn, and reached for its helmet. The figure was ducked down, the top of the helmet hiding its face. Once it stood up, Tech felt his blood freeze.

It was a clone. He could hear him shouting. Tech grabbed Blade’s weapon in panic.

“Woah woah woah woah!” Blade looked at him like he had grown a second head. He pointed a shaking finger forward, his mouth unable to utter a sound.

Blade looked out and quickly took off his helmet to vomit.

--

Pops turned toward movement out of the corner of his eye. He aimed to kill but stopped as a clone charged at him. He had no time to realize what had happened before he was tackled by the clone.

He only stared in shock as the clone ripped off his helmet and held him up.

“Look, we’re clones!” The clone shouted, spinning Pops around to show him off to both parties. That was when it finally donned on him. They were killing their own brothers.

The clone loosened his hold, allowing Pops to fall on all fours.

What had they done?

--

“Ceasefire, all squads!” Cadence blinked in confusion. What was going on? She tapped into the comm channel to ask for more when it came in. “They’re not Umbarans. I repeat, we are firing on clones. Blue on blue!”

She didn’t waste a second. “Ceasefire! All units, ceasefire. Helmets off!” The blaster fire slowly dwindled to nothingness. The two units dropped their weapons and marched up to face each other. Medics took the initiative and ran to assist the wounded on both sides of the field. The alicorn captain fell to her knees and wept.

It took some time to find everyone. The number of dead and wounded reached over one hundred.

Troopers stood around, baffled and confused. “What… what have we done?” Sting stuttered out.

“I don’t understand!” A clone from the 501st snapped. “Why did these troopers attack us?!”

Pops helped a wounded clone to the medical area, where Stitch, Kix, and the other medics were overwhelmed by patients. Stitch did the best he could for a trooper with a blast wound in his stomach. His bacta supplies were already gone, along with Kix’. The best they could do for these men was make them comfortable with some painkillers they had on hand, and those were about to run out.

“W… why?” The clone coughed out. Stitch placed a hand on his shoulder as he tried to sit up.

“Stay down, trooper. It’ll be alright.” It was an easy lie to tell.

--

Rex coordinated the effort of finding every clone that was hit: dead or alive. He was silent throughout the whole thing, only giving out orders or calling over a medic. What could he say? They just murdered each other without hesitation. What was going on?

“Captain!” He turned to Dogma, who was running up. “I found their company commander. It’s… Captain Cadence, she’s still alive.”

Rex’ eyes widened. If Cadence was here, then she must be made aware of what happened to her sister. Without another word, he followed Dogma to a group of 212th troopers huddled around a tree.

He pushed past them and stopped. Cadence was kneeling next to a trooper with a large wound in his stomach. The trooper groaned as she gave him a shot of painkiller.

“Easy, Waxer. It’s okay.” The alicorn spoke softly. Waxer groaned and tried to sit up. But something kept him down. Rex could see the alicorn’s horn glowing. It provided the first welcoming light in this darkened world.

Cadence continued to speak to Waxer, no doubt hoping it would keep him awake long enough to be treated. “I need you to stay awake, Waxer. It’ll be fine.”

“C-Captain, you know… that’s a lie.” She didn’t respond. Not even with a glance. She kept her eyes on the wound as she applied alcohol. Waxer screamed as the liquid burned in his already scorched stomach. No amount of painkillers would numb that.

“I’m not lying, Waxer. You’ll make it. I promise.”

“Don’t promise me that, Captain.” His face was getting pale. Rex could only watch as his fellow captain grew desperate. She began wrapping gauze around the wound when a bloodied hand held her foreleg. That made her look at Waxer.

Their eyes met, both full of tears that were about ready to flow. “Did we… mess up?”

Cadence said nothing. All eyes were on her. They were all asking the same question. Who made the big mistake? Whose fault was it that their brothers were dead?

“We didn’t, Waxer. It wasn’t our fault. It was Krell.”

That shook Rex to his core. It was the fault of his general. A lie he should have seen coming. But why? For what purpose?

“I’m sorry, Captain.” Waxer whimpered. Small streaks flew freely down his cheeks. “I didn’t… I wouldn’t…”

His breathing was shallow and his body went limp. Waxer’s eyes closed and his head dipped down. Cadence said nothing. The silence was deafening.

After some time, she stood up and marched directly up to Captain Rex. Her eyes burned with a fire that could burn this whole planet to the ground.

“Gather your men, get them ready to move out, and tell me what the Fuck is going on.”

The men were gathered, the medics patched up the last of the wounded. The ones who could still fight stood alongside their brothers. The rest were being readied to be carried back to the airbase.

Rex and Cadence stood in front of them all. Men of the 501st and the 212th battalions stood side by side.

“We all know who did this.” Rex stated. “But what we don’t know is why. What we’re about to do is highly treasonous.” He paused and let Cadence take over.

“If anyone wishes to back out, do so now.” All of them took a step forward without hesitation. The men of the 501st and the 212th never backed out.

“From this moment on, we are in uncharted territory.” Rex continued. “My orders are… we arrest General Krell and put him on trial for crimes against the Republic.” Nothing had to be said. The glares from each man said enough.

The men of the 501st and the 212th were angry, they wanted justice, and they would do everything necessary to get it.

Author's Note

Cliffhanger! Haven't done that in a while.

I'm sorry this took so long to get out (and leave you on a cliffhanger.) But everything that could go wrong has gone wrong and I haven't had the time or the energy to write.

I promise to get part 2 out as soon a possible because I can't take anymore heartache in this arc.